College Admissions News Roundup

Although in the past Stanford has been one of the few elite universities that did not have any alumni interviews, the school recently announced that they would like to begin this tradition. Richard Shaw, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, explained, “the university viewed the alumni interviews both as providing more information to the admissions committee, and as building a connection with the prospective applicants.” And alumni.

A recent article in Minding the Campus describes a dystopian future for higher education, in which Harvard and Yale will be forced to merge in the year 2020. The tongue-and-cheek article emphasizes the way in which the popularity of the web and the impossibly high prices of education will lead to students to turn to the internet for schooling.

Christopher L. Miller, a professor of African-American studies and French at Yale University, wrote an article in The Chronicle Review about Yale University’s plans to open its first joint campus in Singapore, in partnership with the National University of Singapore. Miller notes that the Yale-NUS partnership “flies in the face” of many of Yale’s core values, such as “academic freedom” and “nondiscrimination.” In 2010, Human Rights Watch felt Singapore “remains the textbook example of a politically repressive state,” yet this did not affect Yale’s decision. Miller questions the way in which opening the Singapore campus will change Yale’s longstanding democratic values and policies in the future.